An Ode to Instagram

That’s it — along with many others, I’ve just deactivated my Instagram account.

The combination of Peter Krogh’s blog post and discussions with friends were enough to finally convince me to leave.

For eleven months, it was wonderful.  My photographic world became a little more spontaneous and creative, capturing scenes that would normally pass me by and connecting with people I would’t have otherwise have stumbled upon.

Funnily enough, it was only in the last couple of weeks that my following was rapidly starting to blossom, particularly with a series of winter scenes I’ve been posting this week.

An image I posted on Monday rapidly became my most-liked image.

There was no denying the buzz I experienced on seeing so much appreciation roll in for any of my images…

I’ve always been a fan of the visual quip too.  Instagram offers the perfect platform for that — to see the joke, photograph it, post it and have some mutual enjoyment…

— Act Today!

I feel that the Facebook/Instagram environment has become untenable for professional photographers.

If you’re waiting to decide what to do with your Instagram account, it’s imperative that you act today!

Instagram’s terms are updated tomorrow, 19th January, so if you don’t deactivate your account today your images will be subject to the new terms…even if you deactivate it tomorrow AND even if you set your account to Private.

There’s plenty written elsewhere about all this on the web but Peter Krogh’s post sums it up pretty well.

— When I Think of Instagram…

When I think of Instagram, out of the 652 I posted, for some reason two particular images first spring to mind.

One, another visual quip, I shot specifically to use the hashtag #iseefaces (to me, this pylon looks like some kind of robot reaching out to shake my hand)…

The other, to my mind, is a Lowrie-esque landscape that makes me feel calm and warm.

It’s somewhat of a comfort photograph for me, I guess…

— Farewell…

So, it all ended here.  652 photographs, 300 followers, 101 following and 11,336 likes.

I’ll miss you Instagram, I really will…

— UPDATE: EyeEm an Alternative?

It’s Saturday, the dust is settling and I’m gently investigating an alternative, EyeEm.

Apparently, it overtook Instagram last week in the US App Charts.

I’m not saying it’s the alternative to Instagram but it might be a good one — let’s see.

While we work out if it is a good alternative (or if we even want an alternative), feel free to join me there @jacklowe…